Parish Church of All Saints

Details

CRESSING CHURCH ROAD TL 72 SE (east side)

1/50 Parish Church of All 21.12.67 Saints

GV I

Parish church. C12-C15, extended and restored in C19. Mainly of coursed flint rubble containing some brick and tile, S wall of Chancel partly of red brick, with dressings of limestone and clunch, roofed with handmade red plain tiles. N vestry of gault brick in Flemish bond. Nave possibly C12 but with no architectural detail ofthat date, on a Saxo-Norman foundation; Chancel early C13, S wall rebuilt in early C16; bell-turret c.1400; N vestry 1823; S porch C19. The E wall of the Chancel is rendered externally, with a stone plaque in the gable dated 1833; the window is C19; the diagonal NE buttress is C19, of red brick. In the N wall are 2 early C13 lancet windows of one light, both wholly restored externally. The S wall and diagonal SE buttress are of unusual fabric, with erratic courses of 'great bricks' in stretcher bond, intermixed with flint rubble; the bricks are approximately 25 x 16.5 x 4.5 cms; one of them is inscribed BL GL. In the S wall is one early CL6 window of 2 cinquefoiled lights with a quatrefoil in a 4-centred head; the external jambs and head are deeply moulded; the mullion and outer sill are restored; the internal sill is dropped to form a seat, with a chamfered step enclosing the piscina. Further W is a doorway, wholly restored externally, with plain internal jambs and chamfered segmental-jointed rear-arch. The roof of the Chancel is of 9 couples framed in 7 cants, boarded between them, with crenellated wallplates moulded to a bowtell in great casement, repeated, C15. There is no chancel-arch. The E gable of the Nave is timber framed and rendered above the roof of the Chancel. In the N wall are 2 C15 windows, each of 2 cinquefoiled lights with tracery in a 2-centred head with a moulded label; the rear-arches are hollow-moulded; the sill of the eastern window is dropped to form a seat and step. Further W is the C14 N doorway, now enclosed by the N vestry; it has jambs and 2-centred arch chamfered in 2 orders; the moulded label has mutilated head-stops; above the chamfered segmental rear-arch is set a voussoir with chevron ornament, c.1130. An area of disturbed rubble at the E end of this wall indicates the former presence of a stair to the rood-loft. In the S wall are 2 windows; the eastern is of c.1340, of 2 trefoiled ogee lights with quatrefoiled tracery in a 2-centred head, with moulded label; the rear-arch is wave-moulded and the sill is dropped like that of the window opposite; it has crown glass; the western window is similar in date and detail to those in the N wall. E of these windows is an internal recess of uncertain origin, with disturbed rubble outside; it has splayed jambs and a chamfered segmental rear-arch. W of the windows is the late C14 S doorway, the jambs and 2-centred arch wave-moulded in 2 orders, with a moulded label. In the W wall is a window, all C19 except the C15 plain internal jambs and hollow-chamfered 2-centred rear-arch. On the SW quoins are 2 scratch dials, one faint. In the floor in the NE corner of the Nave is an inspection panel giving access to rubble foundations excavated by the Brain Valley Archaeological Society, 1978, showing that the Nave originally terminated in a narrow chancel-arch, with an apsidal Chancel on the site of the western part of the present Chancel. The roof of the Nave is in 4 bays, of which the W bay is wholly occupied by the bell-turret, with 4 tiebeams on arch-braced wall-pieces, arched to its collars, with side purlins and crown pieces with collar purlin engaging high collars, the cowuton couples framed into 7 cants. The timber arches below the collars are tied to the principal-rafters by 3 short timbers, and there are pierced tracery panels between them and the main timbers' (C.A. Hewett, Church Carpentry, a Study based on Essex examples, 1982, 28-9, with illustration). The wallplates are moulded to a bowtell in great casement, and the tiebeams, purlins and arched braces are also moulded; this roof is of the early cls. The most westerly common couple is exposed in the W gable. The bell-turret of c.1400 is mounted on 4 posts forming a portal frame, with arched braces of steep 4-centred arcature; the W braces are hollow-chamfered, the other braces and posts plain-chamfered; the braces engage with attached shafts on the posts. In the spandrels are vertical and horizontal struts. There are braces of similar curvature in the N and S sides. Above the tiebeams 2 further stages are visible, each with curved saltire bracing on each side, and inside them a similar and later structure supporting the square bell-turret and short octagonal spire, not examined owing to lack of access. The N vestry has a door with 4-centred head, and in each side a 2-light window of plastered brick in a 2-centred head; in the N wall is a quatrefoil recess; the roof is flat. Fittings. The piscina in the S wall of the Chancel is early C16, with chamfered jambs and 4-centred head, retaining an earlier octofoil drain asymmetrically placed, probably C14. In the Chancel is a brass of Dorcas (Bigg), wife of Thomas Musgrave, of Norton, Yorkshire, 1610, seated figure of lady, left hand pointing to figure of infant, with 2 inscription plates; and a floor-slab of William Smith and Dorcas, his wife, mid-C17, inscription worn. On the S wall of the Chancel is a monument of Anne (Grene), wife of (a) Thomas Newman, and (b) Henry Smith of Cressing Temple, 1607, alabaster and marble tablet with kneeling figures of man in plate-armour, and lady, with 4 shields of arms; panelled base with small figures of a daughter and a swaddled infant. Fragments of C14 glass reset in the tracery of the N windows of the Nave. Above the N doorway are the arms of Queen Anne before the Union, on canvas in a carved frame. There is one bell, by Thomas Gardiner, 1737. RCHM 1.

Listing NGR: TL7942620435

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

116375

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Hewett, C A, Church Carpentry A Study Based on Essex Examples, (1982), 28-9

End of official list entry